In separate incidents in the city, on Wednesday evening, armed robbers targeted the residences of a family in Kundrathur and a senior citizen in Velachery, and stole gold jewellery and cash.
The double strike has caught the city police, already reeling under a rash of crimes in the past couple of months, on the back foot.
In the first incident in the western suburb of Kundrathur, three armed men barged into the residence of Abraham Mathews, a college lecturer, in Irandam Kattalai. Police officers investigating the case said the robbers scaled over the compound wall of the house and gained entry through the front door that had been left open, while Mr. Mathews was watching television with his wife and their 12-year-old son. It was raining heavily when the robbers entered their home around 7 p.m.
The unidentified suspects threatened the family at knifepoint, tied them up in chairs and stole jewellery weighing 16 sovereigns and Rs. 60,000 in cash. They then drove away in the family’s brand new Maruti Alto car.
The victims’ cries for help went unnoticed for a while as there are no others residences in the vicinity. Finally, a passerby, hearing their cries, entered the house and freed them.
A police team visited the house after receiving a complaint, and traced the car that was abandoned in Thiruneermalai on Thursday morning.
In the other incident, a man broke into the residence of an elderly woman, Lakshmi Devi, in Sitaram Nagar, Velachery. The suspect, reported to be a person known to her, tied her to a chair and then stole 12 sovereigns of gold jewellery and Rs. 50,000 in cash. Ms. Devi’s 25-year-old daughter, a software engineer, was at work when the crime took place.